Escape Doodland Review – I Want to Get Away, I Want to Get Away

This title was reviewed on Nintendo Switch, but is also available on PC.

I don’t like mobile games. As a result, when my console games feel like a mobile game, I get a bit irritated. Such is the case with Escape Doodland; it’s a very basic runner game that consists of, well, running, jumping and… farting. All while being chased by a monster. There’s not any story at all, the jokes of the game centers around toilet humor, and overall, it lacks any sort of depth or variety that would make it fun to play. Between the lack of a real tutorial, an unnecessary and confusing economy, useless extra characters, no real sense of progression past the ten levels… this game isn’t really much for thinking about.

To start off with gameplay, as there is no story, you immediately start off running from a big purple monster. The player character moves automatically, so you only need to do a few things; jump, and fart in three different ways. Outside of that, you’ll jump through toilets, dodge flying obstacles… and that’s about it. Your three different farts can give you a jump boost, a speed boost, or stun the monster. You can also gain currency when playing that can be used to buy characters in the shop. It isn’t explained how the currency is earned or works, nor is it explained whether the characters have any benefits or anything that alters gameplay.

To further that lack of explanation, the game’s “tutorial” isn’t alluded to, so you have to find it to use it essentially. The tutorial itself isn’t really even very helpful, and while the controls are pretty simple regardless, it still seems a bit ridiculous that the controls and their functions wouldn’t be clearly explained to begin with. The gameplay gets pretty repetitive regardless however, as the levels don’t change a whole lot as you progress. Yeah, things will look different and whatnot, but the general function of everything stays the same the whole way through. As a result of this lack of change or depth, this game doesn’t really have much variety or replayability. I found myself bored after about 10 minutes with it, and it didn’t take long to beat despite the purported high difficulty. I didn’t care for it as a whole.

Outside of this, there isn’t really much to talk about.. There’s no real glitches or anything of that nature, the music is annoying and slightly out of place, but it isn’t unique or worth talking about. Overall, this game would feel much more sensible on a phone honestly. I get that it’s on a Switch, so this is still technically a portable game, but playing this made me want to switch consoles (hahahhaha). Do yourself a favor; if you wanna play an endless runner, go play Pitfall or Temple Run on your phone.